Exit from agriculture: a step forward or a step backward for the rural poor?

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development recommends that rural smallholders unable to compete in higher value production should exit agriculture. For the old and new landless, the way forward is wage labour in agriculture, in rural off farm work, or in urban areas. Disjunctively, the Report also proposes ‘farm-financed social welfare’ as a safety net when urban workers are ejected back to countryside at times of ‘urban shock’. My essay contrasts the Report's narrative about felicitous trajectories away from and back to the farm with the historical and contemporary experience of Asia's rural poor.     

Between idealism and reality: the unknown chapter of the Thessalonikian dockworkers in their struggle in the port of Haifa, 1933–1935

In the struggle of Jewish labor in the port of Haifa during the British Mandate, the Thessalonikian dockers played a major role. Until recently the story of their absorption was analyzed ‘from above’ with a functionalist-nationalist explanation. The Thessalonikians arrived equipped with professional skills, enthusiasm, and Zionist solidarity, which ostensibly was to be sufficient for their successful occupational integration at the waterfront. This article looks again on (1) the push–pull factors of migration, and (2) the professional and economic absorption in the waterfront of Haifa, but according to social history approach and ‘from below’, from which emerges a much more complex story. We note failures and successes to gain a foothold in the maritime labor market, the persistence involved, and the partial withdrawal from the struggle. The deepening chasm between national idealism and social reality brought an ongoing polemic between the Thessalonikian dockers and the Zionist elites of the interwar Yishuv, with both sides failing to bridge the gaps.     

African immigrant women’s experience in western host societies: a scoping review

There is a dearth of literature on new African immigrant populations in Canada, especially women from Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the sparse literature focuses on men’s experiences. We analyzed the sparse literature on African immigrant women in western host countries with a focus on previous and emerging trends in the discourse, gaps in literature, important areas for consideration in future research as well as potentially viable theoretically and methodological directions that scholars could follow. We also briefly shared the results of a set of focus group discussions with African women in Canada that followed our scoping review. The findings of our scoping review of literature, largely reinforced in the focus group discussions, underscore the need for more studies on Sub-Saharan African immigrant women’s experiences within and outside the family. Active community engagement as well as the mobilization of women's agency and cultural knowledge, resonate as crucial factors that enhance the transition and integration of Africans into Western host societies.     

“Asking Around”: Immigrants' Counterstrategies to Renew Their Residence Permit in Times of Economic Crisis in Italy

In contrast to the main body of literature focusing on irregular migrants' counterstrategies, this article explores regular migrant workers' practices to renew their residence permit in an attempt to circumvent structural hurdles due to the restrictive Italian legislative framework. Studying migrants' agency in a socioeconomic context, characterized by high unemployment rates and extensive informal working patterns, I thus distinguish three main counterstrategies: (1) the use of their informal networks to falsify their working relations; (2) the possibility of starting up an individual firm; and (3) taking advantage of structural “loopholes.”     

Researching Refugee Youth in the Middle East: Reflections on the Importance of Comparative Research

This paper reflects on the value of comparative anthropologicalresearch with refugee youth. It examines a participatory researchprogramme in eight field sites in the Middle East and NorthAfrica. While recognizing the importance of the specific socio-politicaland cultural context of the different field sites, it has beenpossible to uncover similarities among refugee youth that wouldhave been missed were it not for the exercise in comparison.What emerges from these findings, within research contexts whichwere viewed, by some, as unique and thus not comparable, arethematic similarities. Characteristic of many young people livingin situations of prolonged forced migration are issues of multipleand conflicting identities and ambivalence to transgressed places;activism; and engagement in activities independent of existinghumanitarian aid structures. Thus it can be seen that comparativestudies can draw out the features and qualities which transcendborders, local cultures and the humanitarian aid regime to displaythe traits in common among refugee youth.     

The Salience of Race

While the salience of race is rising in public discourse, the dominant knowledge structure in international studies has deflected this issue. A look at curriculum and research programs suggests that the transnational dimensions of race are sidelined. The core concept of state sovereignty rarely opens to questions of race. Yet there is a longstanding tradition in transnational race relations, including substantial literature and university initiatives. These have had a tangible impact on the activities of international organizations. To restart such efforts in ways appropriate for our times, it is suggested that six sets of interaction between globalization and race could form the core of a curriculum and research program. This foundation provides the basis for explaining how the politics of "we" and "they," friends and enemies, operates in racializing questions of identity, especially after 9/11, when inclusion and exclusion are increasingly securitized.     

Muddy waters: citizenship and the right to vote in the Commonwealth Caribbean migratory context

Two global voting trends are noted in the electoral studies literature: the exclusion of resident noncitizens and the inclusion of non-resident citizens in national elections. These two research streams are rarely studied together. By analysing both of these trends in the Commonwealth Caribbean, the article reveals how the assumed relationship between citizenship and the right to vote does not always hold. Citizenship is neither necessary nor sufficient to exercise full political rights. The Commonwealth Caribbean thus diverges from global voting trends and illustrates the complexities and changing shape of the relationship between citizenship and the right to vote.     

The American West’s longest large mammal migration: clarifying and securing the common interest

Over the last 10 years, conflict has grown over a 170-mile pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) migration between Grand Teton National Park and the Upper Green River Basin in western Wyoming. Resolving conflict in the common interest is proving difficult. This movement is the longest mammal migration in the lower 48 states, spanning the jurisdiction of three federal agencies, three Wyoming counties, and over 40 private landowners. In addition, there are over ten non-governmental conservation organizations, two major state agencies, Wyoming’s executive office, and many citizens involved in the issue. There are three major problem definitions serving the beliefs of participants: the ecological-scientific (conservation biologists, environmentalists), local rights (local control, property rights), and cultural value (historic, western heritage) definitions. These definitions challenge the social and decision making processes of regional communities and government agencies. Underlying the problem of securing the common interest is the highly fragmented patterns of authority and control, misorganized arena(s), and parochial perspectives of many participants. Options promoted by participants can be loosely classified as top-down (government, expert driven) versus bottom-up (local, practice-based) approaches and reflect preferences for the distribution and uses of power and other values. Given the social and decision making context of this case, the bottom-up, practiced-based approach would likely best secure a common interest outcome.     

Immigration and support for redistribution: survey experiments in three European countries

In times of increasing globalisation scholars put considerable efforts into understanding the consequences of immigration to the welfare state. One important factor in this respect is public support for the welfare state and redistribution. This article presents results from a unique survey experiment and a panel study in three European countries (Norway, Germany and the Netherlands) in order to examine whether and how individuals change their preference for redistribution when faced with immigration. Theoretically, citizens with high incomes should be especially likely to withdraw their support for redistribution because they fear the increased fiscal burden, whereas other types of citizens might ask for more compensation for the increased labour market risks caused by immigration. The empirical evidence reveals that only respondents with high incomes and those who face low labour market competition withdraw support for redistribution when faced with immigration.     

Reproducing the ‘national home’: gendering domopolitics

Walters developed the concept of domopolitics to refer to the ways in which the securitisation of migration contributes to the construction of the UK as a ‘national home’. Domopolitical policies and discourses produce the UK as the ‘national home’ of ‘neoliberal citizens’; they thus serve as tools of neoliberal governmentality, disciplining both citizens and migrants into displaying qualities associated with neoliberal citizenship, especially economic productivity. However, the concept of ‘home’ has a particular genealogy within liberal discourses of citizenship. As Pateman contends, the political ‘public’ sphere of liberal citizenship is constructed in opposition to an apolitical ‘private’ sphere. The public sphere has been coded as the domain of men, while women have been relegated to the private ‘home’. Consequently, women have been deemed responsible for the reproduction of both the private, and the ‘national’ home, a construction which has persisted under neoliberalism. While often superficially gender-neutral, domopolitics actually relies upon, and reinforces, these gendered understandings of neoliberal citizenship. Domopolitical policies and discourses construct migrant women’s reproductive practices as a legitimate and necessary site of state intervention, disciplining migrant women to ensure they ‘correctly’ reproduce the neoliberal ‘national home.’